Loveland escapes bulk of storm that closed nearby schools, highways

Staff and wire reports

Posted:
04/09/2013 09:23:03 PM MDT

Loveland resident Audrey Johnson walks through the snow Tuesday at Civic Center Park on her way to the Chilson Recreation Center. The windy and snowy conditions don't hamper Johnson, she said, because she expects such weather on the Front Range.
(
Timothy Hurst
)

While Thompson and Poudre school district schools in Larimer County remained open, schools in Denver, Jefferson County and Longmont were closed because of dangerous conditions on the region's roadways.

In Wyoming, some big stretches of Interstates 25 and 80 were closed Tuesday morning before being reopened, but snow and blowing snow conditions were still making driving dangerous along the interstates and smaller highways. No unnecessary travel was advised Tuesday afternoon on about 180 miles of I-25 between Cheyenne and Casper because heavy snow was causing near white-out conditions.

Meanwhile, freezing rain, snow and strong winds, hit Kansas and South Dakota, where numerous local elections were postponed. Some schools in Minnesota dismissed students early as travel conditions deteriorated.

Snow in the Denver area was lighter than expected, but around 500 flights were canceled at Denver International Airport and deicing was delaying departures.

Flights bound for Chicago's O'Hare International Airport, meanwhile, were being delayed an average of nearly four hours because of dense fog.

While April snowstorms aren't unusual in Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain West, the storm comes after a rather tame winter in many areas.

"We haven't really had bad days like today where everybody is stuck and nobody can go anywhere," said Sam Blaney, who was working the service counter at the Petro truck stop in Laramie, Wyo.

About two dozen truckers and other motorists took refuge at the truck stop to wait out the storm, Blaney said.

Many areas of Wyoming and western Nebraska received more than a foot of snow. In western Nebraska, road crews reported 8- to 9-foot drifts.

"I'm pretty confident that this particular storm is more widespread and has caused more travel problems and closures than any storm we've had this calendar year certainly," Bruce Burrows, spokesman for the Wyoming Department of Transportation, said.

On Monday night, two tornadoes were reported near Akron on Colorado's Eastern Plains though forecasters haven't confirmed the twisters yet. A trailer home rolled over onto its top, a roof blew off a barn and six power poles were toppled, Washington County undersheriff Jon Stivers said.

A motorcycle dealership partially collapsed in Pueblo, where winds gusted to 64 mph.

In Wyoming's Sweetwater County, wind gusts up to 71 mph damaged a marina at Flaming Gorge Reservoir and broke windows at the Western Wyoming Community College in Rock Springs, according to the National Weather Service.

About 1,200 customers in Rock Springs lost power Monday afternoon after winds broke a cross-arm at the top of a power pole. Some residents in Lamont, a small town north of Rawlins, were without power Tuesday. Repair crews used snowcats to access the downed lines, Rocky Mountain Power Company spokesman Jeff Hymas said.